Wisdom 16 Treasure Seekers

[HKHaugan]

Wisdom 16 Treasure Seekers

 “Thar’s gold in them thar hills” was the cry that awakened many to become gold hungry prospectors called the ‘49ers’ in California and later those that roamed the mountains of Alaska. Even today there are the few that take dredges and sift sand for gold off the coast. You can try your tourist hands at panning for it if you go to one of the pretend sluices in the Appalachians where dirt is shipped in from caves supposedly harboring the precious element in their interiors. You may even travel to others like them and get a few gemstones in the process. Then there are diamond, tanzanite, topaz and ruby mining that have significant value for jewelry wearers. Don’t forget those who roam the beaches and oceans to search for buried and sunken treasure. The search is for what is considered monetary value and the possibility of obtaining financial security promising long term personal security.

 The same search has prompted the beginning of a contrived pool of wealth, the lottery. Behind it is the false justification that lotteries feed education needs. Maybe some. But you’ve got to show me that one considering the struggling school budgets everywhere, low teacher salaries and cutting out library programs, arts and music. Even local parental groups have to raise money for supplies and in-school projects. Then, of course, is the fact that many of the ticket purchasers are from low income families who can’t afford them, buy them anyway hoping for ‘the big one’ to rescue them.

 Underneath it all is the belief that financial security is personal security. No way.

 You’ve got to love how the Lord Jesus switches the conversation from financial security to spiritual security which is personal security. Those two parables previously mentioned, the treasure in the field and the pearl (Mt.13:44-46), which are really the Kingdom of Heaven and its King, the ultimate security. He emphasizes that fact in Mt.6:33 when he says to seek first the Kingdom of God and His way to be right, then all that we need will be given us. Not only is this personal security, the Heavenly haven, but it is an eternal relational experience. Heaven is not only a place, it is a relationship with its King. It is hidden in plain view. It is the person of Jesus in the plain view of His Word, in the plain view of His witnesses and in the plain view of the historical impact He has made. It is hidden, ready to burst forth in the field of lonely self-centeredness, where pride and fear blind the ‘eyes of our heart (Eph.1:18)’ from seeing our real longing, that unshakable relationship with God in the Lord Jesus.

 Like all relationships a spiritual relationship begins when you are open, willing, desiring to be relational. Being relational is built into us. It’s what it means to be an image of God. No one wants to be alone. Just feeling and knowing you live alone in your body is proof of our relational need. But because we have that basic aloneness, relationships need an act of will, the will to reach out, ask, seek and knock (Mt.7:7-12). Relationships are invisible. Therefore, they are by nature, spiritual. You can’t see them, touch them, hear them or in any sense physically make them. They are based on the individual’s willingness to be relational which is a basic invisible yet real need. To reach out takes more than believing or even trusting. It’s action. It takes faith which is the actual reaching out. Faith is letting go with everything you believe and trust about Jesus and actively sharing Him. It’s the Spirit of wisdom on overdrive.

 Outside of God, the world’s relationships are subject to earning your way in by ‘fitting in,’ gaining the approval of the local power defining it. And that can change at any time depending on the one who is in power or what group defines it at any given time. If you get a new boss or the place you work changes the rules, either you adapt or out you go. When the Episcopal Church changed the rules that Scripture is no longer our authority, we had the choice to either stay and adapt to the new rules or leave. Relationally, if the world is in charge, it’s then you die when the rules of acceptance are changed or lost.

 It’s just the opposite with the Lord God. Jesus, King of Heaven, comes to you through His death and Resurrection, offering a new life of eternal acceptance where the rules will always be the same. You no longer have to be controlled by pride, fear and their tempting us to read and play the ‘acceptance-rejection’ game. In the power of the Holy Spirit, Jesus lived the perfect life, the wise life, the Holy Life then He went to the Cross and died. By the power of the Holy Spirit He was raised from the grave and through the same Holy Spirit He has become available to each of us. With arms outstretched, Jesus invites us and breathes these touching words into our hearts, “Come to me all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest (Mt.11:28).” To enter that rest we have to accept His invitation. His invitation is His knock on our door.

 That rest, resting in Christ, is from His personal treasure trove. But rest is not lying down or standing still. You can’t stand still in this world. The world is always on your tail. Resting in Jesus is the new sense of confidence while you are on your way, assurance of His presence while you are on your way, carrying the pressure of what’s going on around you while you are on your way. His peace, His love, His grace, His truth, His rightness, His way, His Word, His faith, His love, His confidence floods the spiritual environment in which fear used to make you feel alone and helpless. It is a ‘coming out’ time, coming out of fear of the attitudes and opinions of others that are the pressure in an environment without God.

 Resting in Jesus is becoming whole in the fullness of a relational experience with Jesus the King wherever you are. He is the living treasure chest. When we open the Word and see Him, we find His most precious pearl, the Holy Spirit with His gifts, His fruit, His wisdom and its insights, moving the treasure trove into us, the riches overflowing from the Kingdom of Heaven. He is the One who took the initiative to have a relationship with us. He sacrificed His life in faith and He died to show the Cross was the way of faith to having eternal life. The way of faith in Jesus is salvation. Then He rose to make that clear. If Jesus went to that extreme to get our attention, He must really it’s love us. He offers Himself as a relational Savior and Lord who lives in the heart.

 As King of Heaven, Jesus sees everyone as a potential younger brother and sister whom He can love and care for. He is the pearl, the treasure hidden in the field and a relationship with Him has eternal value which is far beyond the imagination. The mind, heart and spirit were made for His riches. If we are willing, the relationship with Him grows day by day as we allow Him to assist us in the gut level stuff of life. Remember, it’s not just the history we are making that walks us into eternity. It’s what we, by faith in Him, do with every moment’s consciousness we have been given. This is what Jesus means when He tells us to store up treasures for ourselves in Heaven that can’t be destroyed (Mt.6:19-20).